Hideaki Sorachi is the pen name of a Japanese manga artist, most well known for his manga Gintama, which began serialization in 2003 and ended in 2019. He has also written numerous one-shots, including Dandelion, for which he won the Tenkaichi Honourable Mention Manga Award in 2002. Sorachi's distinctive sense of humour and writing style has been the subject of academic research papers. As of February 2018, the Gintama manga has sold 55 million units in Japan.

Gintama is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hideaki Sorachi. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2003 to September 2018, later in Jump Giga from December 2018 to February 2019, and finished on the Gintama app, where it ran from May to June 2019. Its chapters were collected in 77 tankōbon volumes. Set in Edo, which has been conquered by aliens named Amanto, the plot follows samurai Gintoki Sakata, who works as a freelancer in his self-established store, "Yorozuya", alongside his friends Shinpachi Shimura and Kagura, offering a wide range of services to handle various tasks and odd jobs. Sorachi added the science fiction setting to develop characters to his liking after his editor suggested doing a historical series.